Box office roundup

[Abagadro]

Finally saw Sunshine on DVD. I loved the flick, but I can't understand why they chose the plot twist that they did. It didn't kill the movie for me, but it sure did stretch credibility.

I'm in total agreement with that. Last 20 minutes just went off the rails.

[MaceVanHoffen]

*EDIT* Bah, double post

[MaceVanHoffen]

The original book is WAY different from what they are selling on the screen.

Jumper is one of my all time fav sci fi books.  If you haven't read it, you really should.  I think it's a New Classic.

The movie appears to be pretty different, but in this case I may be ok with that.  From the trailers, they appear to have extrapolated some of the ideas from Jumper and the sequel Reflex and fleshed them out a bit more.  I won't spoil the books, but suffice to say that one of the things that can prevent Davy from jumping in the novel seems to be depicted in the movie trailer.

The whole war between jumpers and paladins is totally new for the movie, though, so that might amp up the suck factor.

[Riggswolfe]

EDIT: Finally saw Sunshine on DVD. I loved the flick, but I can't understand why they chose the plot twist that they did. It didn't kill the movie for me, but it sure did stretch credibility.

I am the opposite. I hated Sunshine, and the last 20 minutes or so of the movie is why. It was ok right up until the moment when they dock with the other ship. From there it spirals into a black hole of suckitude that is mind blowing. I honestly think the writers had no idea what kind of movie they wanted or how to end it.

[Bunk]

Just watched it last night. I didn't have the same reaction as far as the ending went, but I think its because I've been trained to know by now that all serious sci-fi movies must break down to thriller/horror cliches to make the story "exciting". I guess this one didn't bother me too much becuase I thought they handled it without getting too silly.

Would I have prefered that they left it out entirely? Sure, but then you would have had a movie that was watched by a total audience of 158, like the Solaris remake.  Pure sci-fi just doesn't sell, unfortunately.

[Ozzu]

Haven't seen any praise for Juno in here.

I fucking loved it.

You are correct sir. Great movie. 

[Velorath]

The next Bond film has been titled Quantum of Solace.

Producer Michael G. Wilson said the title, chosen only a few days ago, was taken from a story by Bond creator Ian Fleming that appears in the collection "For Your Eyes Only."

Craig said Fleming defined a quantum of solace — it means, roughly, a measure of comfort — as "that spark of niceness in a relationship that if you don't have, you might as well give up."

Filming began earlier this month at Pinewood, the franchise's home since the 1960s. It's a direct sequel to 2006's "Casino Royale," beginning an hour after that film ends, with Bond devastated by his betrayal by true love Vesper Lynd.

"He had his heart broken at the end of the last movie and that certainly is a spur for him in this one," Craig said.

"I'd be lying if I said there wasn't revenge in his heart. But it's more than that. That spurs him on, but that's not what the movie is. It's not a revenge movie. It's about him figuring a few things out."

Producer Barbara Broccoli said the film, directed by Marc Forster ("Monster's Ball," "The Kite Runner"), mixes Bond's "inner turmoil" with action — and of course gadgets — as he tries to stop a shadowy cabal trying to bring down the world economy.

Craig's second Bond adventure continues in the gritty vein of "Casino Royale," in which a rough-edged 007, newly granted his "license to kill," bled, sweat and felt real emotion. But Wilson promised it also has "twice as much action" as its predecessor.

"It's pretty jam-packed," he said.

Filming began at Pinewood three weeks ago. Location shooting will take place in Italy, Austria, Panama, Chile and Peru.

Mathieu Amalric is a new addition as villain Dominic Greene. But the French actor, star of the Oscar-nominated "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly," won't be sporting a trademark tic like many of his predecessors.

He and Forster decided his villainy should come from within.

"That's maybe what is horrible about today," Amalric said. "We can't guess who the villains are. The villains are invisible."

Amalric said he modeled his character to some extent on former Prime Minister Tony Blair and French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

"I've been taking details, the smile of Tony Blair, the craziness of Sarkozy, he's the worst villain we've ever had," he said.

Bond may find solace — producers are coy — in the arms of two Bond Girls — Ukrainian Olga Kurylenko as a feisty Bolivian named Camille and Gemma Arterton as an MI6 agent named Fields.

"In the movie, he is obviously still attached to his past," said Kurylenko. "The appearance of this new girl might divert him. Or, it might not."

[Riggswolfe]

That's an odd title but the movie itself should be gold. I'm really enjoying Bond again with Craig in the title role.

[WayAbvPar]

Straight to DVD, but this is the most appropriate thread.

Like many folks here, I read the DragonLance series as a ute. I was really looking forward to watching the cinematic adaption of the first book Dragons of Autumn Twilight. How bad could it be?

The answer is really bad. Painfully, cringeworthy bad. The animation looks like it was done in the 60s. The adapted screenplay is horrible. The voice acting is almost universally bad (Kiefer Sutherland as Raistlin wasn't as bad as the rest). 90 minutes of pain, with a couple of laughs and some "hey, I forgot about that part"s thrown in.

I am sure the SciFi channel will run it eventually. Wait until then. Or borrow it from me.

[Abagadro]

Got dragged to Juno tonight. God that is a stinking pile of shit.

[Lantyssa]

We saw the DragonLance movie tonight since a friend had it through netflix.  Bad. Bad. Bad.

[Margalis]

What didn't you like about Juno Ab?

Great review of Sunshine:

http://www.salon.com/ent/movies/review/2007/07/20/sunshine/index.html?source=search&aim=/ent/movies/review

[Abagadro]

I thought it was too self-consciously "hip" and "edgy".  The only real selling point of the movie is the characters and dialogue and I thought both were incredibly contrived and manipulative. Hated, hated, hated it and I am generally pretty generous with movies that at least try something interesting.

[SnakeCharmer]

Got dragged to Juno tonight. God that is a stinking pile of shit.

Agree. 

[Furiously]

Ok, I finally saw the Bourne Ultimatum on Dvd. To borrow a line from Haemish:

Shitty Shitshit shitastic.

The script made no sense. It kept having conversations that went nowhere.

Bourne: Why are you helping me?
Julia Stiles: You really don't remember?
Bourne: Uhh..no.
Julia Stiles: Oh. [meaningful look]

And it was trying to be relevant with all the rendition and "we can kill people because we're the CIA" hackneyed shit. Jesus, I was even more pissed because I'd just read the novel which was decent.

And the action was destroyed by the horrible editing and directing. I will never again watch a movie that was directed by Paul Greengas. That man is a hack and needs to never work again. Here's a clue you dumb mother fucker, jerking the god damn camera around isn't artsy, it doesn't make it feel like I'm in the action. It makes you look like an ameteur and makes it impossible to enjoy the movie you ADHD S.O.B. Go back to film school!

I watched it a few nights ago. And they tossed about 3/4 of the book out and ignored half the plot from previous movies. They totally dropped the Carlos line. It was trash.  And I agree with the total bizarreness of the Julia Stiles/Bourne thing.

[Ironwood]

We saw the DragonLance movie tonight since a friend had it through netflix.  Bad. Bad. Bad.

Care to expand on this Gorgeous ?

[bhodi]

What the crap, you guys never told me about idiocracy! You have FAILED ME!

If you haven't seen this movie, you need to go see it. Pick it up on dvd. It's apparently some sort of cult hit, and I can't believe no one ever told me about this because I love cults!

Here's the intro of the movie that sets the theme

Also, you need to drink brawndo. It's what F13ers crave. It's got electrolytes.

[Evil Elvis]

Go away, 'baitin'.

[Lantyssa]

WAP pretty much had it covered.

The animation was terrible.  Major problems with perspective.  The CGI was jarring, worse than the animation, and existed solely because of the misplaced belief that CGI makes everything better.  Without it the animation would have still been bad, but somewhat bearable because there would have been a consistant look.  The voice acting was 'meh' to bad.  (The crazy female dragon at the end is the only one that stood out as good to me.)  The unicorn half-way through had such a distored voice I couldn't make out most of what was said.  Lauranna shows up to help and her outfit changes between armor and her civvies over the course of several shots.

The writing.  Ye gads!  To be honest I never read the books.  I cannot imagine people having liked them if the screenplay wasn't anything but taking the overall plot and cutting out every decent part.  Things just sort of happen with no explaination.  I am going to claim I don't want to give examples and ruin the plot, but really I just want to put the same effort into recalling that the writers did in making a good script.  The attempts to appeal to pubescent boys are also way over the top.  Tika shaking her breasts at Caramon and then a shot of her jiggling ass when she walks away.  (Like over-exaggerated, drag queen mocking flirtation type jiggles.)  There was one panning shot of refugees where all the women are wearing stragic pieces of tatters between two more focused shots of the refugees in their standard clothes.  It wasn't even the same art style!  Tarke Tiamat shape changes into a scantily-clad woman just because.  At the end is a jarring shot of Lauranna and the elder tongue wrestling which came out of nowhere.  [Victorious heroes -> panning to idyllic woods -> SUCKING FACE]

The one thing I will give it is that the art, without animation, is okay.  Other than the really, really, really bad perspective problems that plague it when animated, it's consistant, the lines are clean, and characters are easily distinguishable.

Rating: Fireball it, feed it to your pet dragon, then shovel the remnants a few days later into a bottomless pit which contains a gate to the Abyss at its end.  It is, however, great for large groups that like mocking a movie more than watching it.  Make sure to fireball, serve as dragon chow, and toss the remains into a pit afterwards just in case they were tainted though.

[Llava]

I thought it was too self-consciously "hip" and "edgy".  The only real selling point of the movie is the characters and dialogue and I thought both were incredibly contrived and manipulative. Hated, hated, hated it and I am generally pretty generous with movies that at least try something interesting.

Awesome.  That is exactly the impression I got from the trailer, and the reason I didn't go see it.  Fucking nailed it.

[Johny Cee]

What the crap, you guys never told me about idiocracy! You have FAILED ME!

If you haven't seen this movie, you need to go see it. Pick it up on dvd. It's apparently some sort of cult hit, and I can't believe no one ever told me about this because I love cults!

Here's the intro of the movie that sets the theme

Also, you need to drink brawndo. It's what F13ers crave. It's got electrolytes.

Overall,  Idiocracy is alright.  Some bits are great,  like the brawndo stuff.  Or when Luke Wilson stops trying to argue rationally about the crops,  and just says he can talk to plants.  Others really miss the mark, or get dragged out too far.

[schild]

There Will Be Blood was amazing.

[stray]

Daniel Day Lewis doesn't come out of exile for nothing. 

[Abagadro]

Just saw two films at Sundance that were pretty good.

Made in America is a documentary by Stacy Peralta (Riding Giants & Dogdown and Z Boys) about the Bloods and Crips in L.A. A pretty heavy subject, but it is a very well-made film and I really like his style (Riding Giants is one of my all-time favorite docs).  He was at the screening and is a super-cool guy to boot.

The Escapist is a film from Ireland/UK starring Brian Cox and a bunch of other good actors (Damien Lewis, Joseph Fienes) about a prison break. Very stylized and well-done.

I don't know if either will get a release, but they are worth keeping an eye out for.

[Samwise]

Also, you need to drink brawndo. It's what F13ers crave. It's got electrolytes.

I had a third of a can of Brawndo the other day and was twitchy for an hour.  It's terrifying stuff.

[Surlyboi]

Juno? Too hip? Surely you jest. It's the one oscar nominee that actually has a sense of humor.

Not that the other movies aren't good. Michael Clayton was fucking amazing. As was There Will Be Blood and Atonement.

[Abagadro]

No no, too self-consciously hip. Trying so hard to be hip that it became the antithesis of hip.


Edit: is=it

[schild]

Also, you need to drink brawndo. It's what F13ers crave. It's got electrolytes.

I had a third of a can of Brawndo the other day and was twitchy for an hour.  It's terrifying stuff.

Have you had red-line for comparisons sake?

[Johny Cee]

Just saw two films at Sundance that were pretty good.

Made in America is a documentary by Stacy Peralta (Riding Giants & Dogdown and Z Boys) about the Bloods and Crips in L.A. A pretty heavy subject, but it is a very well-made film and I really like his style (Riding Giants is one of my all-time favorite docs).  He was at the screening and is a super-cool guy to boot.

The Escapist is a film from Ireland/UK starring Brian Cox and a bunch of other good actors (Damien Lewis, Joseph Fienes) about a prison break. Very stylized and well-done.

I don't know if either will get a release, but they are worth keeping an eye out for.

Did you catch Frozen River?  I only found out this morning that it was filmed here.

[Abagadro]

No, my Sundancing was highly limited this year unfortunately.

I believe it won the doc prize.

[Mazakiel]

I saw There Will Be Blood last night, and found it to be a pretty damn good movie.  Rather bleak, which is no surprise, but good.  I was also surprised to see the guy who played Beni in The Mummy in it.  It took me a bit to place the actor though.  I can't really think of anything to criticize about the movie, although I will admit the ending seemed a bit...abrupt.  If it's showing near you, it's worth seeing. 

[Murgos]

I saw Sweeney ToddL The Demon Barber of Fleet Street over the weekend.  I liked it, the GF loved the play, didn't care so much for the movie though. 

[stu]

Here's some Flicks from the Future that may be postponed by an upcoming actor's strike. There's more than a few geektastic titles on the list, although The Day the Earth Stood Still with Keanu Reeves probly deserves a delay.

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117980473.html?categoryid=13&cs=1


Also, I decided that I'm going to watch No Country for Old Men again this weekend if I don't find a theater playing In Bruges.

[schild]

Really? REALLY? They can't hire an Emo Highschooler to finish Fast & the Furious 4?

That list is balls.

[HaemishM]

Really? REALLY? They can't hire an Emo Highschooler to finish Fast & the Furious 4?

He's currently on strike. 

EDIT: Wow, you're right. That list IS balls. DEATH WISH? FAME? Fuck me, has Hollywood really gotten so desperate they have to remake FAME?